itcouldntbedone

What is the lowest GPA and/or SAT that you've ever heard of getting into MIT? I know that the main thing the admissions is looking for is your "fit with MIT", how far can that be taken though?

bornalegend

My cousin got in with:
800 Math
720 English
730 Writing

Now 2250 is in no way low, but it's what you should expect to get for MIT. He declined it for Caltech however.

itcouldntbedone

If you don't mind me asking, what type of person was he?

AstroBlue

Usually people with SAT's on the low side who get in will be internationals/URMs/Recruits (not sure if MIT has any)/People with some outstanding national award or the like

randomnumber53

It seems to me that MIT claims the unique homogeneity of a school completely occupied with clones and the common heterogeneity of a school completely occupied with humans.

melody10511

I've seen threads/posts with 2000-2100 acceptances.


I'm kinda lazy to get the quote but MITChris said something like: "high scores don't mean better brains; they mean more affluent families."

This pretty much means that your SAT scores will be judged based on your context; are you so strikingly poor that you couldn't afford any review materials and used fee waivers for everything? If that's the case even 2100 would be impressive.

But if you are from a middle/upper class family that can afford decent education, you will have to get it up to 2200+ to be safe.

Mikalye

The context is all important. Suppose someone was applying with quite good but not stellar grades. That does not normally match well with MIT. But then you learn that the student's family has been relying on their income since the age of 15, and that these grades were earned while the applicant was working 40-hours a week after finishing high school "full-time". Suddenly those grades look a whole lot more impressive.

And that is the key. Anytime you hear about someone being admitted with 550 on an SAT section, there is usually a context unknown to you that makes that accomplishment a lot more impressive than it seems at first.

rspence

Even though I was valedictorian (out of about 45 students) my SAT score was only in the 2000-2100 range. Test scores aren't everything...